<Begin Segment 20>

TI: And what were you, what was your assignment in Australia? What were you, to do there?

SK: We were interrogating, unfortunately for me, selected prisoners who would be flown down to MacArthur's headquarters in Australia. As to what we would find after we landed in Japan, long range targets. Whereas, I was more interested in the perishable type of question, as to where are the machine guns? Where are the land mines? Who's your company commander and so forth, so forth. And so I, after a while I started to bug my immediate officer who happened to be an Australian major because this is Allied headquarters, and I start to bother this Australian major with a request for a transfer to a forward area. And he finally, finally got the best of him I guess because he said, "You're going to New Guinea." And I was assigned to headquarters 6th Army in New Guinea, northern part of New Guinea and there I was there, from about oh, spring until sometime in September 1944.

TI: And what were, what, what did you do at New Guinea?

SK: I was interrogating prisoners who would come in and whenever they came in, we went through a sort of recruiting procedure by which we would line them up and have them take their uniform off. Take their dirty, stinking uniforms off and empty their pockets of, of any things that they wanted to keep and then would have them step back and then the MPs would come around and collect all the dirty uniforms and throw them on a fire that was nearby and burn 'em up. And at the same time I'm going down the line with a cigarette, pack of cigarettes in one hand and lighter in the other and offering each man a cigarette and explaining to them the fact that we will issue you a new uniform as soon as you go over there and wash up. And then we will take you in and feed you. And I'm explaining that as I go down the line, but this particular day there were about ten, twelve, I suppose. Some of them get the impression that this is their day of execution, that the Americans are, are at least letting us wash ourselves before they execute us. So they, some of them tremble, they can't stop shaking and I came across this one big fella. I offered him a cigarette and he turned the other way. So I thought, "Well this guy doesn't smoke." So I kept on going down the line and as I returned past him, he suddenly stuck his hand out. So I thought, "Oh, he changed his mind. He does smoke." So I gave him a cigarette and lit it for him and I, I told the, one of my associates, "Save that big guy for me. I want to talk to him, interrogate him." So a couple of days later I finally got to this fellow and his name is Takayama. Yoshio Takayama from Kagoshima. And I asked Takayama, I said, "How come you refused my cigarette when I first came down and you, you'd changed your mind and when I came by again you stuck your hand out?" He said, "At first I thought if this is a place of execution I would not even accept a cigarette from that man. And then as you went down the line I heard everyday Japanese being spoken in a normal tone of voice somewhere." And so he quickly thought, "This can't be a place of execution, not when I hear Japanese being spoken," so he changed his mind and took the cigarette when I came back again. And several days letter, since this a brand new place of a POW compound and we needed to clear the jungle area around the outside of the immediate outside of the compound, we had not only the task of our assistant, the MPs, to count the roll call, count the heads as well as to determine who among them is healthy enough to be worked outside the camp. So I told the, the officer in charge, I said, "Why do we have to go through that rigmarole everyday?" I said, "Why don't we appoint one of them to be in charge? And we will assist, we will supervise and have them select those who can work outside, healthy enough to work outside." And he said, "Well how would you work it?" I said, "In the (captured warehouse), where all the rice, rice bags are piled up. Rice and they pour gasoline on top so that a couple of bags we would have to throw away, but the rest of the sacks of rice are intact and good." I said, "There's a batch of blue cloth there. We could cut and make strips of them, enough to wrap around the arm. And as a mark of authority." And I would -- and he said, "Well how would -- " I said, "I would appoint that Navy man. His name is Takayama, Navy man and he can appoint Army and the Air Force or whatever he's got to assist him." And I said, "Let them run it and we will supervise." So from there on, everything worked just perfectly, no problem.

TI: So what was Takayama's reaction when you, when you approached him and asked him to do this? He was willing to do this? He, he looked favorably upon this?

SK: There was no choice. I mean I, I gave him cigarette and so forth, so he thought that was a good deal. Because I said, "We have a warehouse where Japanese food is. You appoint a man to be in charge of the cooking area." And he did. And so they were, oh we will sometime go on our own and eat with them. We ate pretty good. So that situation, relationship continued except for so many months until sometime in September we suddenly got orders to start packing, because we are all leaving. Destination unknown. So as I'm helping to break down the tent and outside the compound to get ready to leave, he came to the gate and motioned for me. So I went in and he said, "I have one final request to make. I know you're leaving. I would like to know your name and your address so that possibly after the war I could properly thank you for all your kindnesses." And I was surprised, I thought I was just doing my job. So I said, "You know I can't give you my name and address." I wasn't about to jeopardize my younger brother and sisters caught in Japan during the war. So, besides, we had orders not to use our names anyway, just in case. So I said, "Well look," -- he looked so disappointed. So I said, "Look, look, if I survive and get to Japan, I know who you are and you come from Kagoshima and I can look, look for you." So with that we parted and I took off and I got on board this LST Landing Ship-Tank.

<End Segment 20> - Copyright © 1998 Densho. All Rights Reserved.